me and you

The title “Me and You” by Niccolo Ammaniti’s latest novel prompts expectations of yet another story of love and romance, but it is something more unusual. Translated, from Italian, by Kylee Doust, this is original, well-written and thought-provoking piece of fiction about adolescents’ problems and their complex relationships. The author takes us on a remarkable journey through the fear of future responsibilities that awaits young people, self -criticism, and self-indulgence familiar to that age group.  Ammaniti writes about the adolescence fiercely and sympathetically. His 14 year old main character- Lorenzo Cuni, who narrates the story from 10 years after, lives in a world of his own, unable to connect with his peers or anyone except his mother, who is frantically searching for ways of helping him to fit in. A psychiatrist tells his worried mother that he “is unable to feel empathy for others. For him everything that’s outside his circle of affections doesn’t exist, has no effect on him. He believes he is special and only people as special as him can understand him.” Diagnosed with narcissistic personality disorder, (a condition in which people have an inflated sense of self-importance and an extreme preoccupation with themselves), he truly wishes to be “normal”, to blend in, and make friends, but it’s clear that Lorenzo doesn’t have any social skills and finds it difficult to make friends- not without want of trying. He tries to fit in by imitating his classmates. “Here is what I had to do. Imitate the dangerous ones. I wore the same things they wore. Adidas trainers, jeans with holes in them, a black hoodie. I messed up the parting in my hair and let it grow long. I even wanted to get my ear pierced but my mother forbade me. I walked like them, with my legs wide apart. I threw my backpack on the ground and kicked it around. I mimicked them discreetly.” He chooses the mimetic tactic of behaving like a fly which, by camouflaging itself as a wasp, avoids their attacks. His camouflage consists not only of mimicking his peers, but also, of talking back to teachers, not doing his homework, making rude jokes and showing off with a trumped-up self-confidence. After overhearing his school mates making plans for a week- long skiing trip, he decides to lie to his parents, telling them that he has been invited to go along. His mother is thrilled at this sign of an incipient social life and Lorenzo is thrilled too…as he plans to spend the whole week hiding in his cellar, by himself of course, with tins of sardines and tuna, his PlayStation games and science-fiction books. After she begins to drive him to the meeting place, Lorenzo starts panicking and insists she has to drop him off at a distance so as to avoid embarrassment in front of his “friends”.  She reluctantly agrees, and once she is out of sight, he heads towards home. When Lorenzo is certain that his parents have left for the day, he sneaks into the cellar of the family home. It is damp and humid, loaded with old furniture, boxes and other junk, but has a bed and a bathroom. Perfect hide-out spot for a week long “vacation”.  But Lorenzo’s solitude is disturbed, when his half-sister, whom he barely knows, unexpectedly unlocks the door to the cellar, and discovers his hiding place. He fears, that his secret will be unfolded, but what he doesn’t realize is that Olivia, whom is estranged from the family, has secrets of her own to keep. Turns out, that Olivia is a recovering drug addict, strung-out and desperate for money to buy drugs, plans to take refuge in the cellar herself. After some negotiations, he lets her stay, and does his best to ignore her cries of agony as she suffers from withdrawal symptoms. But when her condition gets worst, he finally decides to take the best care of her as he can. It seems that the author closely observes and analyses the dynamics that develop between Olivia and Lorenzo, and it appears that one cannot stand the other, but at the same time need each other for emotional support. Otherwise, Ammaniti doesn’t give us too much about them: that would weaken the drama in the cellar. This story has a balance that is just about right. By maintaining a certain level of tension throughout, the author created a short, but very intriguing book. The story’s real strength lies more in what is not said: Why is Lorenzo so attached and so sentimental about his mother? Why does he have such a hard time fitting in at school? Why is Olivia estranged from the family? These questions allow room for the reader to figure things out and to read between the lines.  This might be a highly condensed story, but it deals with important themes such as family, shame, addictions, and our need to be accepted by our peers and loved by those closest to us. During adolescence, peers play a large part in a young person’s life and typically replace family as the center of a teen’s social and leisure activities. Some kids give in to peer pressure because they want to be liked, to fit in, or because they worry that other kids may make fun of them if they don’t go along with the group. Lorenzo is no sociopath; he is intelligent, talented, shy, and, of course, misunderstood boy who just tries to fit in with the crowd without being noticed and judged.

Sometimes it is the shortest books which pack the biggest punch-and this is especially true for the novel “Me and You”. Even though it isn’t easy to relate or understand the main characters Lorenzo and Olivia, but their story manages to stay interesting to the very last page. This novel takes a day or two to read, but will stay in your memory forever. It is an international bestseller and is also being made into a film by Bernardo Bertolucci. If the film will be as good as the book, it is worth seeing.

Aqua

The Aqua Tower, one of the most beautiful skyscrapers in Chicago is located on the 200 block of North Columbus Drive. The 82-story tower- the tallest building designed by a woman, Jeanne Gang, resembles the waves of the Lake Michigan that is only a couple blocks away. The architectural and conceptual idea and deign was well planned by the architect to create visually interesting and practical skyscraper in Chicago downtown. Its unique structure cannot be unnoticed by the passerby, because it is the opposite of the typical repetitive, boxy skyscrapers that surrounds it- it has movement that is visually created by the uneven and irregular balconies. The balconies are actually the main component which from exterior view makes the building so unique. The fluidity and the curves of the balconies make the tower building a very outstanding and beautiful architectural structure. Gang’s designed balconies are breathtaking; and it is an example how concrete and steel materials can seem so soft and flexible. As viewed from different perspectives, and as a whole, the balconies create a seemingly organic shape across the towers facades unlike anything before seen in a tall building design, and yet they are carefully planned to provide solar shading, and amazing views. These unique terraces have a very sculptural appearance and differ in shape from floor to floor causing each floor plate to be different and unique. From afar, the balconies don’t have much of a skyline impact, but from a close –up view, they become a stunning presence, flowing like waves across the facade and forming organic, irregularly shaped layers.

  Sustainability was an important factor in Aqua’s design. The tower’s east-west orientation maximizes its winter solar performance, because the balconies are extended further out to provide shading, reducing sun exposure in the summer. Another very important design detail is the high performance glazing that increases energy efficiency throughout the tower. Glass on the east and south facades are reflective in areas without a protective balcony, while the glass facing west had a tinted coating that improves its shading coefficient. In total, the Aqua Tower has six different types of glass- tinted, clear, reflective, spandrel, fritted and translucent, the placement of which is determined by the orientation and function of interior space. Fritted glass is used and combined with handrail design to minimize bird strikes. According to statistics, as high as one billion wild birds are killed each year from birds flying into glass, including mirrored buildings and skyscrapers, so Jeanne Gang not only designed the economically efficient design, but also created a protection for birds. Yet another very important architectural and engineering problem that Gang was able to solve was the performance of the structure under high wind. Undulating slab edges “confused” the flow of wind around the tower, effectively reducing the wind demands, and this, combining with the effectiveness of the structural deign, eliminated the need for a supplemental damping system.

Overall, Aqua Tower is an outstanding and beautiful tower that is not only first Chicago development to combine condos, a hotel and a retail space, but also LEED certified building. Aqua has been built to minimize its impact on the environment while enhancing the lifestyle of its residents.  

review on morbid curiosity

Honestly, the exhibition could easily make one physically sick, and emotionally affected. “The Morbid Curiosity the Richard Harris Collection” held in Chicago cultural center is one of those rare and memorable experiences that could get stuck in one’s head for a lifetime. Richard Harris’s art collection expresses his fascination about death with nearly 1000 pieces that explore the iconography of death across time and culture. A central theme, the hollowness of this world’ s pleasures in the face of death is represented with objects that represent the seductive attractions of life and symbols that remind the viewer of the rapidity of the passage time. The two main components of this exhibition are the “War Room”, a collection of five great war series, and the “ Kunstkammer of Death”, a collection featuring a wide- ranging survey of mortality across different historical periods and different cultures. Both rooms filled with fearsome and dreadful collectibles were evenly appalling, and only few things such as three dimensional objects like sculls that were made of beads, glass, wood or metal, chandelier made of bones and “The Death of Venus” was not too bad to look at. Everything else in the exhibition literally could made one sick to his stomach. One of the creepiest things in the gallery was the baby in the highchair with a bomb attached instead of his head and the children in the circle holding hands dressed up in the military uniforms. Art pieces and arrangements like these two really affect and encourage the viewer to focus on human mortality and the purpose of life. The probably grossest object that was there was a shocking “meat art” piece that was named “Are you still mad at me?” It was a representation of realistic human body, or whatever was left of it, as an anatomical model. The theme mainly emphasizes the fragility of the human body and explores biological aspects of human body as well. Another very interesting piece of Richard Harris collection was “Hanging Figure” were the artist emphasizes on transitional nature of death. The suspended human skeleton figure shows the parts of body reassembled and held together with a sea grass. Overall, his collection was fascinating by the variety of different art pieces that he was able to collect. Photographs, paintings, three dimensional objects in a very large or miniature scale, represented both interior and exterior of the human body in a very unique and traumatizing way.

BlackDog

Old good expression, ‘what goes around comes around’- is the perfect description of “Black Dogs: the possibly true story of classic rock’s greatest robbery” written by Jason Buhrmester book’s plot. This means, that all characters in the book harm someone else, and ultimately pay some sort of price for their bad behavior.

            The story follows a group of Baltimore punks who want to become big time thieves. The leader, Patrick, comes up with the idea of stealing money from the Led Zeppelin- the biggest rock band on the planet at that time (the book takes place in 1973). Surprisingly (or not) his or his friends’ ideas become the reality in every step they make. The book is written mostly from Patrick’s point of view, but in the first couple chapters, the author just tells the reader that Patrick is a Black Sabbath fan and from there makes the reader guess everything else about him. That is what Buhrmester does with every character-give each one of them just enough detail to help the reader to visualize them. Besides Patrick, the other three main characters in the book are his three good friends and partners in crime- Keith, Alex and Frenchy. Keith, dirty, always broke dude who installs and then steals the same stereos for a living, Alex- ex-convict, who was locked up for eight months for robbing Tina’s house was described as a tough lady’s man who grew up around blacks and tried to fit in by acting black, and Frenchy- who works at Record Barn and has couple cover bands playing at bars and private events. Overall, the gang is described as a group of long-haired stoners who are trashy, filthy thieves that love to smoke pot, drink beer and steal.

The author fills each chapter with needed plot device to make the story go at an incredibly fast pace, but he never takes a break to reflect on the story or its characters. It just gets so twisted and complicated, that at some moments it seems that Buhrmester loses the focus of the main concept  of the book and adds new and unnecessary information which extends the length of the story but does not make it more interesting or intriguing.  The main idea of the book was to rewrite the partially true story about the robbery of the Led Zeppelin rock band, so the author created this flat plot of many different robbery stories to finally reach the culmination in last two chapters and to describe “the robbery”. The main events start to take place when the gang decides to rob the Haven Street Pawn shop that is owned by Backwoods Billy-mean and psychotic convict and a leader of “Holy Ghosts” gang, to steal a guitar that they plan to sell to Led Zeppelin. They unwisely steal some very important tapes that are in the Billy’s safe, which ultimately forces them to rob Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin after selling him a 1958 Les Paul guitar. Eventually, they accidently succeed and get away with all the cash that is hidden in the guitar case. True fact: during Led Zeppelin’s 1973 tour, someone stole 203,000 dollar from Led Zeppelin’s safe deposit box at the Drake Hotel in New York after the band played the sold out shows at Madison Square Garden. The thief or thieves were never caught.

‘What goes around comes around’- according to the Jason Buhrmester, the rock band Led Zeppelin stole songs from Willie Dixon, Sleepy John Estes, Howlin’ Wolf, Bukka White and that’s how they became rich and famous…the group of stoners and small scale thieves eventually became just rich…

Rise of the Planet of the Apes is a 2011 American science fiction drama film directed by Rupert Wyatt, starring James Franco and Andy Serkis. It is 20^th Century Fox’s reboot of the Planet of the Apes- the original series of five films (1968-1973), intended to act as an original story for a new series of films.

The film stars and tells the story of an ape rebellion on Earth, led by a genetically-altered chimpanzee named Caesar. The difference between the original Planet of Apes and this new release fiction movie is the major advance of technology. No more guys squeezed into monkey suits and talking in strange accents...thanks to computer technology that can now achieve to bring the apes to life. The combination of entirely digital chimpanzees and Academy Award nominated actors deliver a smart and entertaining movie, which in January 2012 was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.

The film follows Will Rodman, scientist at biotechnology company Gen-Sys who is working on a chemical compound designed to cure Alzheimer’s’ Disease, which happens to afflict his father (John Lithgow). Through chimp test Rodman discovers that his developed ALZ 112 compound not only rebuilds damaged brain tissue, but significantly increases intelligence. The drug, a modified virus, mutates the chimpanzees, giving them a human level of intelligence. After a lab accident, Rodman is forced to put-down all of his primate test subjects, and is left to rise a baby chimp, that he later names Caesar. Caesar-, who has genetically inherited super-intelligence from his mother, is raised in a house and is surrounded by humans, who treat him as one. As the chimpanzee grows, it becomes difficult for the chimp to make sense of his role in a human world, as well as withstand his animal impulses. After Caesar attacks and bites off the neighbor’s finger, authorities make Rodman to place him in a primate shelter where he is treated cruelly by the other ape and the chief guard. Eventually Caesar gains dominance over the apes, escapes the ape facility, returns to Rodman’ house and steals the canisters of ALZ 112. Chimpanzee then releases it throughout the cage area of the facility enhancing the intelligence of his fellow apes. The animals that were oppressed by humans and used as the laboratory rats for treatments, escape out of their cages and storm the city.

Rise of the planet of the apes would not be possible without the especially impressive effort of Weta Digital, who produced through motion capture, the remarkably life-like performances of apes. Overall, the movie is visually interesting and successfully depicts the actual rise of the apes. It is a sincere story that delivers one of the most life-like and honest digital characters ever constructed.

music album critique-II

Maroon 5 is an American pop-rock band from Los Angeles, California. Their third album “Hands All Over” was produced by veteran producer Robert John “Mutt” Langer and released in September 2010. The band’s lead vocalist is Adam Lavine, keyboardist - Jesse Carmichael, bass guitarist-Mickey Madden and drummer-Ryan Dusick. Maroon 5 songs tend to be very guitar-heavy, often accompanied by synthesizer. The theme in all their songs is love, frequently -lost love.

Once again, Maroon 5 steadily stuck to their plan “to play it safe” and delivered exactly what their fans expected… and it was not the best choice. Even though people buy new released music albums because they like the band and music their favorite artists create, they still expect to hear something new and fresh; they hope for a growth for a band. Well, in this case, they got all same melodies and lyrics like in the previous albums. Not even a bit of experimentation was put into this new album. All the same lovey-dovey songs, and all the same repetitive melodies throughout the “Hand All Over” …that what makes it extremely boring.

The lyrics are the weakest part of the album…too sweet for all-boy band and too weepy. The lyrics are all the same in every song. No originality at all. All the songs are about love, make-ups, break-ups…and there is nothing bad about it, every artist writes about love, but others are able to pull it off by being creative and original, and Maroon 5 just did not get it right at all. Lead ingle “Misery”, as well as songs “Give a Little More” and “Never Gonna Leave This Bed” did not live up to the hype that surrounded Maroon 5’s return and did not show any artistic growth. There isn’t a lot of good material that can stand up as the highlights of the band. Songs are monotonous and similar in context. They all blend together and it is hard to distinguish one from another. In the song “Don’t Know Much About That” Adam Lavine sings “I don’t know nothing ‘bout that…in fact I don’t know nothing at all…yeah I’m tired of proving you right…by doing everything so wrong (so wrong)…tell me what you really want (you want)…because I don’t want to be…I don’t want to be alone”. Oh please. So straight forward, so cheesy. The bands pop-soul ballads remind me of pop-singer Justin Timberlake and his “Cry Me a River” type of songs. As far as the leading singers’ vocal abilities- nothing impressive. Adam Lavine voice is annoying and sounds like whining. Very disappointing music album.